


New Hire

by mkrcry



Series: Unsavoury Galar Region [8]
Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Information Technology, Gambling, Gaming, M/M, Office
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 07:13:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23967439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mkrcry/pseuds/mkrcry
Summary: Raihan works in IT
Relationships: Raihan/Leon
Series: Unsavoury Galar Region [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1676005
Comments: 5
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be adding tags as I update with more chapters

“Wallet… check. Cell phone… check, Lunch… check... Shoot! Forgot my tie…”  
Raihan ran back into his room. It was going to be his first day at his new job as an independent contractor. He had a stable and relaxed job at a different financial institution prior, but was hoping to land a job in one of those major corporations located in Wyndon. After an extensive interview process that lasted for almost a month, he managed to secure a position at MC Insurance.  
“There’s my lucky tie! Ehhh… looks a little tacky with my white dress shirt, but whatever!”  
He put on his blue and orange striped tie, grabbed his backpack, and left for the train station. Since he lived in Hammerlocke, it would only take fifteen to twenty minutes to commute to Wyndon on a good day. Today unfortunately, was one of those bad days. There was a signal problem, and the train had stopped moving for almost fifteen minutes now, doubling the regular commute time. Once the train reached Wyndon, he, along with the rest of the fellow commuters, were running in all different directions to get to their respective workplaces on time.

“Haah… Haahh…”  
Raihan panted as he finally reached the lobby of the office building after making a mad dash from the station. This was his second time stepping foot into the building, and he quickly made his way to the elevators. The first time he went there was for his in-person interview before they decided to hire him. He had misheard on the phone that he was supposed to go to the ninth floor, but luckily an employee who saw him loitering around walked up to him and helped him out after he gave him the name of his interviewer, and sent him back to the eighth floor to be right on time. If he thought that if he ever saw him, he’d definitely have to thank him again.

He reached the eighth floor but he didn’t see anyone familiar. People were going in and out of the doors, but he stayed put as he didn’t know where his team was located. He took out his cellphone and searched through his emails for his interviewer’s phone number. One of his interviewers was a woman named Nessa, and he quickly dialed her number.  
“Hello? Is this Nessa? This is Raihan. I’m in the eighth floor lobby.”  
“Oh! Hi! Good morning! Sorry... I’m actually still on my way to the office. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”  
He could hear her running footsteps.  
“No worries, I’ll keep waiting here. Train signal problems, am I right?”  
“Haha! Yeah… Sorry about that, I’ll be there soon! I’m almost at the ground floor lobby. I’ll see you in a bit!”  
“Alright, thanks. Bye.”  
Raihan hung up. There were many people coming from the elevators that didn’t look like his interviewer. A few people had been holding doors for him, but he had to decline as he continued to wait. One elderly woman who had just exited the elevators walked up toward him and looked him over.  
“Hmmm… Perhaps you’re Raihan?”  
She was holding onto a parasol and wearing a turquoise and pink striped blazer over her white blouse with a dark purple faux-fur scarf around her neck. Her long skirt and hat also matched her blazer. Looking at her attire, he felt less bad for wearing his unmatching tie. He definitely didn’t stand out at all in comparison.  
“Ah! Yes, my name is Raihan.”  
“A lanky bean sprout, you are! What is with those colours on your tie!? If only it was pink instead.”  
“Uhhh…”  
Raihan didn’t know how to react to that, but she walked to the key card reader and tapped her card. The doors automatically opened for her to step inside. She turned to him while still standing in the middle of them so they didn’t close.  
“Well, what are you waiting for? We’re going to be fellow colleagues. I’ll show you to your desk.”  
“Oh- Yes ma’am!”  
“Please don’t call me that. My name is Opal.”  
“Ah… okay. Thank you Opal.”

Raihan followed her through the doors. His team was located in one of the corners of the floor. There was an empty cubicle in the middle of their area.  
“We’ve actually rearranged our seats so that yours would be in the middle. That way everyone can keep an eye on you.”  
“Oh… thanks.”  
“Hah! Just kidding. Our previous developer left two days ago, and that was where he sat. It was a group effort to help clean up and set up your workstation in one day.”  
A familiar woman was running through the pathway towards them, skillfully dodging the rest of the office workers walking along her path.  
“Hey, Opal! You should have told me you let him in…”  
Nessa set her things on the desk next to his. Today she was wearing a white blouse and capri pants with her hair straight with a small stylish bun at the back. Comparing clothes, she was in business casual while he seemed a bit too formal.  
“Oh? I’m sorry dear, you didn’t wait long out there did you?”  
“Not really. I figured he must have gone in.”  
She turned to him and held out her hand.  
“You know my name already but let’s just go through introductions again! I’m Nessa, and I work as a business analyst.”  
“Hey Nessa, happy to be here!”  
Raihan shook her hand.  
“And this is Opal. She’s our project manager, and has been working in this team for many years. Actually, she’s going to r-”  
“Shhh… Let’s move on to others.”  
“Oh… alright.”

They walked over to the next row of cubicles. Raihan recognized one of them as he had stepped into his interview session to pass some papers to his interviewers. He was short, but on closer inspection, he had a bulging upper body. He could have sworn he saw Nessa blush while she looked at him.  
“Hello, I’m Milo. I’m the QA for this team. Nice to meet you!”  
“Hey, my name’s Raihan. I’ll be the new developer here.”  
“Yes, of course! You’ll also be working alongside Kabu. He’s the senior developer here.”  
As soon as he heard his name, Kabu stood up and walked over to them.  
“You’re quite young. Fresh out of college?”  
“Haha… no, I have a few years experience already!”  
“Is that so, I hope we can learn from each other.”  
“Likewise.”  
He shook his hand. So far his teammates seemed like they were going to be nice people, even Opal. It wasn’t like he could be mad at her but he was a little hurt being called bean sprout.

The last guy that had yet to introduce himself was wearing a pair of headphones, and was hunched over at his desk typing away on his keyboard. While taking short sips of his coffee, and finally hitting the send button for his email, he turned his chair and stood up to lazily walk over to them. He was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans, as if he was exempt from the office dress code policy. Raihan couldn’t find the right words to describe his hair other than it being wild, but he definitely wouldn’t have thought he worked in an office if he had seen him anywhere else. Resting his headphones around his neck, he held out his hand for a handshake.  
“I’m Piers. I support all our applications.”  
“Ah, I’m Raihan.”  
He shook his hand, but he put on his headphones right after, and went back to his chair to start typing up another email. Raihan thought his eyes looked tired but wasn’t surprised after he said he worked in support.  
“Sorry ‘bout that. There’s a stinkin’ prod issue since this early morning.”  
“That’s tough, hopefully I can help out with fixing those bugs later on.”  
Raihan left him to his work and went back to his desk. He thought his new team was quite small in numbers despite working for a larger company. The only person he hasn’t met again was Melony. She had interviewed him along with Nessa, and was going to be his manager. Unfortunately she was fully booked in meetings for the entire morning. Nessa helped him with getting set up as soon as he was able to log into his computer. It turned out that he was still missing access for a lot of things, so he thought he was getting a paid day of doing nothing. It was the plan up until Opal dropped a stack of papers on his desk.  
“Here’s the new project proposal. Have a look over as this will be what you’ll be focusing on to complete.”  
Raihan looked through the papers, eager to find out what sort of projects he’d be working on to code. He was happy to be able to work for such a well-known company, and he was extremely content with his new salary. If only he could show _her_ , he thought. Depending on his performance for these six months, he may be given the option to switch to a full-time position. The members of the team were mostly young, and he thought Nessa was quite pretty and glanced at her from time to time. He then reminded himself what happened in his last workplace, and let out a sigh as pursuing a coworker never ends well. He took out a pen, ready to read through and make some notes for this new project he had specifically been hired to do. Setting thoughts of romance aside, he was determined to only focus on himself and his career until this project is finished.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's still his first day

“Hey, I’m back! Hmmm? Is your laptop all set up?”  
Melony asked as she walked over to Raihan’s desk. Kabu was sitting next to him typing on his laptop.  
“Ahhh… not quite yet. I’m still missing permissions to do a lot of things, but right now I’m just downloading software. Kabu’s helping me with grabbing a list of groups I need to request access for.  
“Alright. Just let me know what needs my approval, and send me a reminder if needed. But anyway, all of this can wait. Let’s all head out for our team lunch now!”  
The rest of the team started locking their computers and putting their coats on. Raihan had brought his lunch and didn’t expect to be treated on his first day, but he could probably keep it in the fridge.  
“Okay Kabu, let’s not make them wait. Let’s continue when we get back.”  
Kabu closed his laptop and brought it back to his desk. The rest of his team were waiting for them near the elevators.

Melony had picked a nearby restaurant for them to dine in. They all sat down and started sharing stories of their previous jobs, but Melony finally asked Raihan what was his impression of the team.  
“I think you’re all nice people, but I just can’t help but wonder why there aren’t that many people in this team.”  
Including him, the team was only made up of seven people. MC Insurance has many IT teams handling different applications, but there were a lot of applications under Melony’s portfolio. He couldn’t help but feel her team’s a little understaffed.  
“Ugh… We had more, but you know… budget cuts.”   
“Nessa! Don’t freak out the new guy so early!” Melony interjected but didn’t deny the claim. It seemed that it was true, and worrying now that Raihan had looked over the project proposal once.  
“Haha… I mean that happens everywhere.”  
Raihan nervously laughed, but the project he had to do seemed like too much work for one person. He knew most of the technologies involved but getting everything done in six months seemed like it would be difficult. If he was still at his old job, he’d be mostly browsing the internet, or playing games on his phone. There wasn’t much to do, but even if there was, he’d get it all done less than a day. The pay may have been significantly less, but it was enough to survive and put a bit into savings every month.  
“What are you thinking about? Are you regretting your decision to join this team?”  
Opal asked him. Raihan definitely had no regrets, but he must have looked too deep in thought.  
“Nope, this challenging job is just what I was looking for!”  
Afterall, money was still his biggest motivator, plus he can finally buy that gaming chair he always wanted after getting his first paycheque. They started talking about hobbies and he told them he liked taking selfies and posting them online, but he didn’t want to mention he was an avid gamer and sometimes did some live-streaming of video game playthroughs. He learned that Nessa also did modeling part-time, Milo liked gardening, and that Kabu moved to this region a few years ago. Opal mentioned that she finally found an ‘apprentice’ that looks good in pink, whatever that meant, and that Melony is a mother of five children and that her eldest son had been her biggest problem as of late. Piers refused to tell him what his hobby was and also forbade anyone else to tell him. The topic then shifted to Piers’ appearance, and Melony told him that he didn’t need to worry about dressing up in formal business attire unless he knew beforehand he was going to meet a client. Once they were done eating, Melony paid for all their meals using the company credit card.

…

They all walked back to the office and resumed their work. Kabu had finished helping Raihan make requests to all the groups he needed to be in. All that was left to do was wait for those requests to complete and his software to finish installing. Since he didn’t have much to do, he decided to take a break and go down for a coffee.

On his way to the coffee shop, he caught a glimpse of the man that helped him on his interview day. He was easy to recognize because of his long, purple hair.  
“Hey! Wait!”  
Raihan caught up to him.  
“Hmmm? Oh! It’s you again! Haha, I’m guessing everything went well! Congrats!”  
“Of course, all thanks to you! Oh, but if only I could have treated you to that coffee you’re holding…”  
“Ahhhh… no worries, it was my free cup anyways. I just finally got on break but realized I forgot my wallet today…”  
“Have you eaten yet? If not then it’s on me!”  
“Sadly not yet… Hey! W-wait!”  
Raihan took his wrist and dragged him back towards the food court. He let go of him once he said he’ll follow.  
“Okay, take your pick.”  
“I really don’t mind anything…”  
Not wanting to waste any time awkwardly standing around, Raihan took him to one of the burger joints that was probably the most expensive option in the food court. He paid for his meal and also bought himself a coffee and a snack.

“Thanks a lot!”  
The man was about to take a bite of his burger but stopped.  
“Ahhh! What’s wrong with me? I forgot to introduce myself, the name’s Leon!”  
“I’m Raihan. Work must be really tough if you’re eating lunch at 2 p.m.”  
“Haha… Today’s just a bit busier than usual. Raihan… what an exotic name, I like it.”  
“Thanks, you’re making me blush! I seriously can’t thank you enough for helping me get to my interview on time.”  
“I’m sure you’re incredible, Raihan! I doubt they wouldn’t have hired you just for being a few minutes late.”  
Leon dug into his food. Raihan checked his phone as he ate his pastry snack. He opened up a game app and was collecting his daily rewards.  
“Oh? You play that game too?”  
“Pokemon Masters? Yeah, it’s pretty fun.”  
Leon wiped his hands and took out his phone.  
“I haven’t logged in yet today… Oh! There’s a rerun scout featuring Garchomp.”  
“Man, I haven’t gotten that pokemon yet and I’ve been trying.”  
“Hey, help me roll. I have a few gems.”  
“You sure? Knowing my luck, you’d just get a bunch of three-star tickets.”  
“Don’t worry about it.”  
Leon had just enough gems for a 10-summon and he told Raihan to use it all for him. Raihan swiped the Poryphone, and a rainbow spark appeared. The first unit was already a five-star and it was Garchomp.  
“Wow! You’re really lucky, Raihan!”  
Raihan skipped through the rest of the animation, and another Garchomp appeared. He managed to get two in one roll but too bad it wasn’t on his own account.  
“Maybe today’s my lucky day! I think I also have enough for a ten on my account.”  
Raihan opened his phone again to roll. He managed to get a rainbow spark too but unfortunately he got another Glalie that turned into a five-star ticket, and no new pokemon.  
“Awww, at least there’s still some time left for you to collect more gems.”  
“Ughh… should I spend?”  
Raihan was feeling depressed, since he spent a bit during the previous run and didn’t get Garchomp. His favourite type was dragon types.  
“Try collecting as many free gems first. There’s also that daily deal- Oh! I’m not trying to enable you or anything…”  
“Ahhh, whatever, I’ll complete some more quests first. You better help me roll before the banner ends!”  
“Haha, alright!”  
Raihan checked the time and he had already spent twenty minutes just chilling with Leon. It was probably not the best impression he’d want to give to his team on his first day, even if he had nothing much to do. He told Leon he had to go and went back to the office.

Back at his desk, he looked through the proposal again, and typed out a list of questions in an email to send to Opal and Nessa. There were a lot of things he didn’t agree with but it was mainly the timeline. The project itself was an application rewrite to optimize runtimes, but also included adding in additional features. He spent the rest of the work hours discussing with them, and as soon as it hit 5 p.m. everyone was getting ready to leave. He noticed Milo and Kabu carrying gym bags with them. Milo walked up to him.  
“Hey Raihan, we sometimes go to the gym right after work. You can come with us next time!”  
“Oh nice, thanks! I definitely will!”  
“Yep, it’s the gym right next to the train station. You can also get a discount on the membership now that you’re an employee here so be sure to check that out.”  
Milo and Kabu left. Raihan had been skipping out on going to the gym lately since all he did was stay at home and play video games if he wasn’t applying for jobs or going to job interviews while he was unemployed for a month. He decided to cancel his current membership at the gym he normally went to, and apply to the one his coworkers mentioned.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> office romance? nOt iN My FiC 👀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jk

The next morning, Raihan went to work wearing a t-shirt and jeans. He wanted to wear sweatpants, but thought that that was going too far. The IDEs he downloaded the day before had finished installing, and he started looking through the application code he was supposed to rewrite.  
“Have you checked your emails?”  
Opal walked over to his desk to ask.  
“No I haven’t yet.”  
Raihan opened his emails and noticed he got a meeting invite from Opal. The title of the email was “Insurance plan app rewrite touchpoint”. There were a few more people invited but he wasn’t able to check their names since Opal closed his laptop.  
“It’s starting soon. We should head to the meeting room now. Bring a notebook and something to write with.”  
Nessa got up from her chair. “Are you sure about bringing Raihan along? Oleana will be there and this is his first time meeting her. Maybe if he was wearing what he wore yesterday-”  
“Oh Nessa, if Oleana really cared, she would have been more vocal of what I wore.”  
“But she does-”  
“She didn’t say it loud enough for me to hear. Let’s not make them wait any longer, they’re always early.”

Raihan followed them to the meeting room, feeling a bit nervous as this would be his first time meeting his team’s client. As soon as he stepped into the room, he was surprised to see someone he already knew.  
“L-Leon…!?”  
He said under his breath, but Leon made it evident that they had met already.  
“Good morning, Opal, Nessa, and Raihan.”  
“M-morning...”  
Another woman in the room was already glaring at him, her eyes fixated on the jeans he was wearing. Opal started the meeting with introductions.  
“This is our new developer, Raihan. We’ve decided to let him take over this project instead of Kabu. Raihan, you’ll be working with these users. Oleana is the director, while Sonia and Leon are her assistants. Oh, but it seems like you’ve already met him, Leon.”  
“Haha, yeah I have. It was a funny story actually-”  
“Save it for later. Let’s get on with the meeting.”  
Oleana interrupted Leon and started going through her meeting notes. It seemed like Leon didn’t care that much as if he was already used to it. Raihan looked at the other girl in the room. She dressed herself just as pretty as Nessa does, and also noticed she was sitting closer to Leon. Once she noticed his gaze, she smiled at him. Oleana also noticed him staring at her subordinate as well and scowled.  
“Hmm, Raihan, was it? Although you have only joined the development team since yesterday, have you looked into the documents already available for this project?”  
“Yes I have looked at the project proposal…”  
Raihan briefly summarized the project just to prove to her he did his homework, but was only given a “hmph” at the end of his explanation. He wrote down some notes to compare with Nessa’s after the meeting since it seemed like their clients wanted to add additional features on top of what was stated in the proposal.

“Opal, please set up another meeting once development is complete. Please keep us updated through emails.”  
Oleana got up and left the room, with Leon and Sonia following her. Once Raihan walked out of the room, he noticed Leon had been waiting for him right outside.  
“Hey Raihan, wanna eat lunch together later?”  
“Ehhh I don’t know about 2 p.m…”  
“Ha! Of course not! I’ll message you around noon?”  
“Yeah I’m just joking, see you later!”  
Leon went to the elevator while Raihan went back to his desk. Nessa had been hiding behind a cubicle and came out once Leon was out of sight.  
“Wow, Raihan! You work fast, tell us later what insider info you find.”  
“I don’t think I can imagine what _you’d_ think I’d ask him.”  
They went back to their desks. At least Leon was a guy, he thought. If he was going with Sonia instead, he was sure there would be no end to his coworkers gossiping about it.

He met up with Leon and brought the lunch he had made for yesterday. He had cooked curry the night before and was quite proud of the results, and even shared a bite with Leon. Leon of course, had an ulterior motive for inviting him. He took out his phone and opened his game.  
“I mean I’m just one away from unlocking the entire sync grid so… let me borrow your luck again!”  
“Wha- how did you get so many gems so fast? Did you spend-”  
“That doesn’t matter! Just help me!”  
Raihan swiped the Poryphone down again, and he managed to get Leon what he wanted. He sighed as the night before he had caved and spent a day’s salary to get just one Garchomp, but he was happy that Leon was happy, and only just noticed how big his eyes were. He quickly turned away, feeling his face heat up for staring too long.  
“Thanks a lot, Raihan! I wish I met you earlier. I had a really tough time before just getting one Charizard.”  
Leon put his arm around him and pulled him in while holding his phone for him to see. He also wanted some advice on which nodes to unlock on the sync grid.

Meanwhile, Nessa and Sonia were also having lunch at a nearby table in the food court, and couldn’t believe how chummy they were already.  
“I can’t believe our new hire. He’s already out here stealing your man.”  
“Nessa! What are you saying!? We’re not like that!”  
“Come on, you guys are childhood friends, and managed to get the exact same job!”  
“Ughh… that’s precisely the reason why we can’t be together. There’s no way our boss would allow something like that.”  
“What can Oleana do about it? It’s none of her business as long as it doesn’t interfere with productivity…”  
“Shhh… She can do lots of things! Your previous dev was pressured to quit because of her evaluation- Ah! Please don’t tell anyone I told you…”  
“Oh wow… and of course…”

…

Two weeks had passed since Raihan was hired. He had been working hard, thanks to the unreasonable deadlines assigned to his tasks. Oleana was treating him harshly even though he was new, and Opal wasn’t able to convince her to be more lenient. After putting in a number of hours of voluntary overtime, he was finally back on track to finish coding for the first phase of the project before the deadline. Work hours were over and he decided to leave on time for the day.  
“Not working overtime again?”  
Kabu had asked him just as he was about to leave.  
“Nah, not today. I need a break.”  
“Good, I was starting to worry. Tomorrow’s a gym day so you should join us.”  
“Alright sure.”  
Raihan had completely forgotten about going to the gym thanks to all the work that had been assigned to him. Now that most of his work was done and it’ll be less stressful, he was excited about wearing his geeky workout clothes tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im not used to this where r the bad words :(


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> raihan finally goes to the gym

The next day Raihan brought another bag with a change of clothes to take to the gym after work. His morning went on like usual, and his productivity completely flew out the window after lunch. He spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with Milo, Kabu, and occasionally Piers while he wasn’t on call. Once it was 4 p.m. Piers started packing up and the others did the same.  
“Huh? We’re leaving now?”  
“Yep. We need to keep an eye on Piers and make sure he’s coming along with us!”  
Milo exclaimed just as Piers groaned. Raihan didn’t think Piers was the type to go to the gym, but the four of them walked there together.

Raihan changed into a pokemon shirt he bought online. Although he wanted to wear a different one, he decided to be a little more subtle since this was his first time working out with his coworkers. He wore a black shirt that had a tiny Goomys printed near the hem and jogging pants. His plan for today was just cardio since he was feeling too lazy to use the strength equipment. Once he got out of the changing room, he walked over to the treadmills. Milo and Kabu were already warming up but Piers wasn’t with them.  
“Where’s Piers? Didn’t he finish changing before me?”  
“He’s over there.”  
Milo pointed towards the massage chairs.  
“... But he didn’t do anything yet?”  
“Haha… he’s always like this but we just hope one day he’ll try out some other equipment here.”

Raihan used the treadmill for an hour and decided he was done for the day. He noticed that Piers had already snuck out and left, and decided to follow his example. After letting Milo and Kabu know that he’d be leaving, he went to the changing room.  
“Hey, Raihan! Nice shirt, I have a similar one too.”  
He turned around and there was Leon, changing out of his workout clothes to put on his dress shirt. He knew Leon’s arms were pretty bulky but didn’t think he was _that_ ripped, and he was starting to feel a bit insecure of his own body.  
“O-oh! Leon! Didn’t know you came to this gym too.”  
“I’m usually here every day right after work. We should work out together sometime!”  
“Haha… yeah, maybe you can spot me.”  
“Sure, see you next week!”

Leon had left in a hurry. On the way back home, Raihan couldn’t get the image of Leon’s toned chest out of his head. Once he was home, he went to put his workout clothes in the washing machine. The shirt he had was already pretty tight on him, and it was the largest size that could be purchased. He couldn’t imagine how Leon could even fit into one with his massive pecs. Turning on his Nintendo Switch console, he decided to take his mind off these sorts of thoughts and play some Pokemon. Ever since he started his new job, he hasn’t had the time to play at all.

It was a new ranking season, and he decided to queue up for some battles. At one point he was in Masterball rank and made it to the top ten ranked players. He had posted a screenshot of his ranking to promote his stream, and had a few regulars that would tune in every time he was live. Since he was inactive for almost a month, he had lost some subscribers. There was one notable player that always kept his No. 1 spot and has never lost a match. Every other well known streamer in the high ranks would talk about this player. His ingame name was champ1 and he had fought him a few times before and lost every match. No one knew who this person was, but he had once anonymously sent a screenshot to one of the popular streamers, showcasing his record without any losses. He decided to start playing a few battles every day until he climbed back to the higher ranks to battle him again.

…

The following week, Raihan decided to go to the gym with Leon after work. Nessa also came along with them.  
“Raihan… just… _what_ are you staring at?”  
Nessa, who was next to him, asked. Raihan was doing some core exercises lying on his back on top of a mat, but stopped now that he was too distracted from watching Leon.  
“Do you see anyone else doing squats here? I think it’s quite obvious who I’m looking at…”  
Leon was nearby doing a set of squats. Raihan was watching him, but more so his butt. He never noticed how round it was, and Leon would squeeze his glutes once he moved back to the standing position. Leon had finished his set and put down the kettlebell weight he was holding onto.  
“Nice! Good form, Leon!”  
“Huh? Uh… Thanks!”  
Leon turned to smile at him and then went to do a set of bench presses. Nessa flicked his forehead.  
“Ouch.”  
“I can’t believe it...”  
“Same, I can’t believe there are guys who would openly do squats like that. I really admire their courage.”  
“That’s not what I meant.”  
“I wonder what it feels like…”  
“...”  
Nessa put on her earbuds and ignored him. Raihan laid there spacey and forgot about his core exercises he was planning to do. Eventually he moved to sit on a massage chair for a bit and then went back home.

He turned on his game and his stream after a long while. A few people tuned in and he let them know he was going to try to reach a high rank again. After playing a number of ranked battles, he managed to climb back up to the ten thousands in ranking. It was getting late so he decided to stop and call it a night. He was having trouble falling asleep so he scrolled through the chat logs since he didn’t read all of it. There was one particular viewer that had tuned in for the entirety, and their username was charmander1. He remembered that person had given him some helpful tips in the past while he was trying to climb the ranks when he had a losing streak right after hitting top ten in ranking.

_charmander1: glad to see you’re back!  
charmander1: friendly reminder charizard is better than duraludon lolol  
charmander1: i wish you can get a teefie for your ingame character  
charmander1: just one pokemon left? remember to use steal beam lol  
thegreatraihan241 to charmander1: come on man, give me some better advice like u used to!!!  
charmander1 to thegreatraihan241: ok stop losing_

Raihan smiled rereading the chatlog. Most of his viewers were just playing around, but then again he still had a lot more battles to fight before reaching the top hundreds. Feeling sleepier, he put his phone away.

…

Leon had asked Raihan to accompany him to the gym again after every work day. They had been going together for more than a week now. Today was no different. After warming up, Leon grabbed two heavy dumbbell weights and went to do bench presses. Raihan walked over to him and stared.  
“Hmmm? Something wrong Raihan? Haha… just where do you think you’re looking?”  
 _Your tits._ Is what he wanted to say if nobody was around but it was quite packed today.  
“Leon, just how much bigger do you need them to be? Those weights are heavier than what you used previously too.”  
“Wha- what’s big??”  
“Your boo- Huh?!”  
A younger girl had come up from behind and grabbed his arm before he could touch one of those meaty pecs. She had a short bob hairstyle, and her grey eyes matched her hair colour. She was also wearing clothes similar to the other staff that worked there, but she was an intern according to her name tag.  
“Hey! Are you harassing one of our regulars!?”  
Leon put his weights down and sat up.  
“Wait, Bea! He’s not harassing me, he’s a co- A friend!”  
“R-really? Oh, I’m sorry then!”  
She let go of Raihan and apologized again before walking away to check on other areas of the gym.  
“Phew… thanks Leon. I… I’m sorry.”  
“N-no problem… but to answer your question, I like to push myself for every exercise I do eventually! I had been using the same weights for a long while now, today I just wanted to challenge myself. Uhhh… Do you still want to touch them?”  
“Nnn… no, that’s fine, I don't know what came over me. Are you going to do squats today too?”  
“Huh-”  
“Ah, nevermind…”  
Even if he wanted to touch them, he didn't want to risk getting caught by Bea again. Raihan went to continue his own workout and tried not to look at how sweaty Leon was getting while he worked on his legs. He thought about what happened earlier and was quite happy that Leon considered him as a friend when he sounded like he was about to say ‘coworker’ at first. Since they were ‘friends’ he thought about asking if Leon wanted to eat dinner at a nearby place that had some good online reviews.

“I can’t today. Sorry Raihan…”  
“Oh, maybe some other time.”  
Since he thought it would be lame to eat out alone, he decided to go back home. Leon had again rushed to get change and pack up his things and left before him. On his way to the train platform at the station, he spotted Leon… along with Sonia. Thinking that they probably made plans together, he continued walking toward his platform but it seemed like the two didn’t notice him. He couldn’t help but feel just a tiny bit jealous.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> eevee raid event next plz

“This was it, right?”  
Leon rummaged through his bag and pulled out a small pouch.  
“Yeah… Ugh… I knew I left my wallet in there! Thanks a lot. W-want to grab a snack or something before taking the train?”  
Sonia shyly asked, but Leon zipped up his bag and slung it around his shoulder.  
“Sorry Sonia, you already know today’s video game night with Hop, I’ll see you tomorrow.”  
“H-Hey wait! Jeez… Every night is video game night for you! Wait up, we’re taking the same train!”  
Leon and Sonia managed to board the train in just one minute before the doors closed. Sonia gave him an earful but the good thing about having longer hair is that he’d be able to hide his wireless earbuds and tune out of it all.

As soon as they made it to the last station stop, Leon said a quick goodbye and got off before Sonia could complain about his behaviour. There was a new event in the Pokemon game featuring gigantamax Pikachu raid dens. Hop had asked Leon to join him and their neighbour Gloria in some raid battles.  
“Hey Hop, I’m back. Did you start yet?”  
“Nope, we were waiting for you so we decided to queue up for some battles. Did you eat yet because we already did.”  
“Ahhh… no, not yet. You should have told me, a coworker asked me if I wanted to join them!”  
Hey wait! Come on, Lee! You can’t blame me for it, plus you should have gone anyway! We could always raid tomorrow since it’s the weekend. I can’t believe you turned down Sonia again.”  
“Huh? It wasn’t Sonia, it was the new guy.”  
“Ugh… Lee, even if you need to keep your number one ranking, you should really take a break sometimes and socialize more!”  
“Ahh… I promise I will _next_ time. I have a raid up now.”

After a while, Leon went downstairs to find some dinner for himself, and to tease Hop about giving him some space with his ‘girlfriend’. While he was sitting at the table eating in the kitchen, he got a notification that thegreatraihan241 had started his stream.

“Hey guys! Back online again and ready to climb. Hope you don’t mind me eating, I just got home and cooked myself a little something~”  
Raihan was eating his bowl of noodles while waiting for a match. Leon was looking at his sad leftovers he was still eating that were a bit bland. He decided to type in the chat asking Raihan to give him some of what he’s eating to which Raihan replied saying he was eating leftovers too. He finally got a match and started battling. Leon had finished eating around the time his match ended with a win.

“Alright, time to queue up again.”  
Raihan queued up for another match on his stream and Leon decided to do so too. To his surprise, he was immediately matched with Raihan despite their ranking difference. The other fans in his stream chat were already screaming that it was champ1’s team and Leon decided to close his window of the stream and hop back in later to see Raihan’s reaction after he wins. The match took a while since Raihan took as much time as he could to make his decisions. It was a close battle but Leon had won.

“Ahhhh! Damn it! I’ll win the next one, so fight me again, champ!”  
Raihan immediately went to check his ranking. He only dropped a few places but he immediately queued up again, saying that he’d win this time. His viewers started poking fun at him for being so riled up after losing. Leon didn’t think that Raihan winning against him would mean so much to him. He had always played the game for fun and staying in the high ranks was just a bonus. After queuing up, they were surprisingly matched up again, and more and more viewers were tuning in on his stream. 

Leon closed his phone and went back up into his room to continue playing there. Raihan was taking a lot of time making decisions while he decided to go with a riskier team composition. Both down to their last pokemon, Leon decided to finish him off with a risky move, giving him the win if it misses. He had his Inteleon use a hydropump to finish off Raihan’s Duraludon when he could have used a snipe shot. The move missed, and Raihan defeated him with a Thunderbolt.

“What the hell, Lee!? Why did you do that!!?”  
“Wha?”  
Hop had burst into his room with Gloria right behind him. Gloria had her tablet out and was watching thegreatraihan241’s stream. Raihan was cursing on stream about his win and that champ1 had disrespected him by letting him win and so on.  
“Huh? But I thought he wanted to win.”  
“Come on, Lee! You can’t just _let_ him win! You should know since you’re a competitive player too…”  
“Ahh… I should apologize to him then…”  
“How are you going to do that!? Then everyone would know your account online!”  
“Raihan’s my coworker actually… I’ve been hanging out with him after work lately but he doesn’t know my game name. But come on, it can’t be that much of a deal right? I’m sure everyone would forget about this in a few hours.”  
“Even so, you also worked hard getting up to those ranks right? How much did you drop?”

Leon checked his game and saw that he was definitely under the top ten players now. It didn’t really matter that much to him anyway. Hop decided to stop bothering him about it so much and they did some more raids. It turned out that Gloria was a big fan of Raihan’s stream and had followed his social media account. He had a regular profile and a separate profile for his ‘teefie’. Leon decided to make his own account to follow both of them. Lately he has been spending more time with him after work and they already eat lunch together almost every day. He noticed that Raihan had posted some of the pictures of the food they ate at work. He spent the rest of the night just looking through all his posts...

…

After Raihan’s win against champ1, a lot of people had subscribed to his stream. He had gone up a number of ranks, but couldn’t help but feel it was undeserving. More people were making fun of him than congratulating him since it was clear that champ1 was being cocky with the last move. He felt like his stream now more so to prove to his viewers that he was a skilled player rather than to have fun. For the next few weeks at work, he felt worn out and went to the gym less even though Leon still kept inviting him. He was determined to keep streaming every day until he was in the top hundred in rank but he was clearly stressed out.

He had received an email from Leon. Now that his dev work was almost complete, Oleana had requested to begin user acceptance testing. He was now working on support tasks while trying to complete his dev tasks. Since he was the only developer working on the project with only minimal help from Kabu, he was also putting in more hours to fix up his code. Leon had emailed him another issue he found that he needed to fix, and moments later he got a message from him.

_Hey Raihan, can I talk to you after work?_  
I might stay late, maybe some other time?  
I can wait. 

Leon was being a lot more persistent than usual, and Raihan decided to meet up with him as he didn’t want to strain their business relationship. Raihan tried to wrap up his tasks for the day quickly and meet up with Leon.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> eevee needs to stop using endure

Leon was already waiting for him by the elevators. Raihan opened the door and stood by it.  
“Sorry for the wait, come in. Maybe we can quickly discuss it in one of the meeting rooms or something.”  
“Oh, it’s not work related… are you done for the day?”  
“Yeah, I’m done but… I’m usually busy now after work-”  
“I really need to talk to you about something important! Please, let’s talk over dinner… my treat.”  
“What? O-okay…”  
Raihan went back to grab his bag and coat. He couldn’t imagine what Leon had to say to him over dinner, but he did feel pretty bad about declining his invitations to go back home to stream for the past few weeks.  
“Alright, I’m ready. Where are we going?”  
“How about that restaurant you wanted to go to last time?”  
“Last time…? Gosh Leon, that was ages ago but alright.”  
Raihan took out his phone to search for the address and they were on their way.

“So what was it you wanted to talk about?”  
Raihan asked while they were walking along the streets outside. Leon had been rather quiet since they stepped out of the building but he wasn’t sure how to tell him. Hop had been telling him to apologize to him early on but he had always shrugged him off saying that Raihan would get over it, and now it was affecting his work. Raihan had been making careless errors which was delaying their presentations with their clients and he couldn’t help but feel responsible. He had been watching his stream every day and could tell that the battle was still bothering him, and his new fans didn’t make the situation any better.  
“It’s about your stream…”  
“Hmmm? You watch that?”  
“Y-yeah! Of course I do! I might just be one of your biggest fans…! Haha…”  
“Ohhh…”  
Raihan looked away embarrassed, thinking about all the silly and crude things he said on stream before.  
“Is it that surprising that I watch it?”  
“Yeah… I mean I’ve been super uncool lately…”  
Leon laughed that that was his only worry. He still wasn’t sure how to tell him he is champ1 but they were already at the restaurant. He decided to tell him after dinner.

As soon as they sat down, Raihan ordered alcohol.  
“Hey, are you that stressed out?”  
“Just a little. At least it’s the weekend tomorrow.”  
The good thing about getting more fans was that he also got more donations, but only after he ordered did he remember that Leon was treating him.  
“Ahhh, shit! I’m sorry Leon, I’ll pay for myself this time.”  
“Come on, a few drinks doesn’t really matter to me. I think I’ll have one too.”  
They placed their order but it took a while for the food to come. Raihan had been asking him if he played the Pokemon game he always played in his stream, and even took out his switch he had in his bag since lately he had also been playing during his commute. Leon had always brought his switch to work and also excitedly took it out of his bag, but he loaded up his Pokemon Shield game since his champ1 character was on his Sword save.  
“Hey, check out this shiny Applin I got! This silly thing took me a week to hatch!”  
“Haha, didn’t think you were the type to read that much into the game’s story. I don’t really hatch for shinies, I just go for competitive stats.”  
“You’re not very romantic are you, Leon? My ex would have liked it… but she’s an ex.”  
“Who do you plan to give that Applin to now?”  
“That’s a secret.”  
“Is it someone from work?”  
Before Raihan could open his mouth to answer, the waiter brought over their order. Raihan ignored his question and dug in. He stuffed his face while asking Leon if he wanted any. Leon took one of the last few juicy slices of meat he was clearly saving for last on his plate and put it in his mouth.  
“Hey! I’m taking yours too!”

After eating, Leon paid for them both, but he still had to tell him the truth. They got up and left the restaurant but Raihan asked him if he wanted to go to another bar.  
“Alright, don’t drink too much though.”  
“Don’t worry about me, I can hold my alcohol. Let’s go!”  
They went to another bar and sat at a table. Raihan had suggested they play a drinking game and took out his switch. They were going to battle each other and the loser had to take a shot.  
“You’re going to regret this, Raihan!”  
“Ha! You’re quite cocky for someone who doesn't have a record yet.”  
Leon had forgotten he didn’t play any battles in his other game, but he had a decent team and accepted Raihan’s battle request. He was already familiar with Raihan’s pokemon and all their moves, so his victory wasn’t that difficult.  
“Beginner’s luck.”  
Raihan downed one vodka shot out of the eight he ordered. Leon didn’t plan on having him drink all of them but he also didn’t want to lose on purpose in case it might make him angry. He took this opportunity to test out some other pokemon teams and movesets, but Raihan kept using the exact same team. In the end, he had only lost twice but Raihan was clearly picking the wrong moves the more he drank.  
“Alright, I’ll take the last one. I think you’ve had enough.”  
As Raihan reached for the last shot glass, Leon snatched it away and downed it. To his surprise, Raihan lunged at him.  
“Hey! T-thaat’s mine! Give it baaaack!”  
Leon didn’t notice he was slurring his words until now. He was awfully quiet for the last few matches they had. Raihan pressed his lips against him and stuck his tongue into his mouth.  
“Mmmmph, ahh! S-stop that!”  
He moved away but Raihan’s face was clearly flushed, and he was looking a little sick.  
“I… I don’t feel so good…”  
“I thought you said you had good alcohol tolerance… Then again those battles were pretty quick...”  
“I do, I usually drank more than this... back in college”  
“...How many years ago was that…”  
“Urk…”  
Raihan quickly covered his mouth. Leon got up from his seat but Raihan gestured that he was fine, but he got up to use the washroom. The waiter came back to give him the bill which he paid for. Raihan was taking a long time and he was getting worried, but as soon as he decided to get up and check on him, Raihan came back.  
“Ughhh… Sorry about this Leon.”  
“No worries, my place is actually close by. I think you should take a rest there for now. Come on.”  
Leon got up and picked up his own and Raihan’s jacket. Raihan put his on but he looked a bit wobbly while walking. After crossing a few more streets, they were at the entrance to the condo Leon lived at.  
“Wow… Whoa…!”  
Raihan had almost tripped over a curb, but Leon caught him.  
“Hey, watch your step… actually just hold onto me, we’re almost there anyway.”  
“Okay…”  
He slung his arm around him for support. Midway to the lobby, he started spacing out, staring at Leon’s long hair. He pressed his face against the back of his head.  
“Smooth…”  
“R-Raihan!”  
“I like long hair…”  
“I- Haha! I can’t believe you!”  
Leon was a bit lightheaded himself but found it funny that Raihan was flirty with him while drunk. Now that they were in the lobby with more people around, Leon told him to calm down as he dragged him into the elevator.

Once they got into his unit, Raihan immediately laid down on the carpet floor.  
“I’ll get you some water, Raihan. There’s a couch over there, it’ll be more comfortable than the floor.”  
“Uggghh…”  
Raihan struggled to get up from the floor and plop himself onto the couch right next to him. Leon had quickly come back with two glasses of water in hand and placed them on the table in front.  
“Just relax for a bit… Now where did I put that remote?”  
Leon was searching for the TV remote but was having trouble finding it. After searching between the couch cushions and no avail, he bent over to search the drawers that were part of the low table. Raihan looked down at that round butt right in front of him, telling Leon he didn’t need to look for it anymore since there’s something right in front of him that can keep him thoroughly entertained.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dont do that

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> super short chapter :C  
> I'm ending this fic here and making a "part 2" to mark as explicit so I don't have to change the rating for this one.
> 
> I'll also probably ruin the entire thing in part 2...

Leon was too focused looking for the remote than to pay attention to what Raihan was saying.  
“Hmmm? Oh here it is.”  
He found the remote hidden in his drawer of snacks. His plan was to turn on the TV, plug his switch onto the dock and show Raihan that he was ‘champ1’, and properly apologize. Raihan took a glass of water to drink while staring at his butt and came up with a ‘brilliant’ plan to entertain himself before Leon could pick up the remote.  
“Don’t move…”  
While Leon was still bent over on his knees, Raihan had taken the other glass of water and placed it on his back.  
“Wha- Raihan! What are you doing!?”  
“Come oooon, Leon! Don’t move or it’ll spill.”  
Leon was getting irritated at him. He was still in his work clothes after all and didn’t want to get them wet but unfortunately that had to happen as Raihan took the opportunity to grope his butt. The water spilled as he jerked his body in surprise to Raihan touching him, getting both his dress shirt and pants wet along with the floor. The glass cup had also fallen and broke, and Leon pricked his finger picking up a shard.  
“Ahh..! I’m sorry, Leon…”  
“Ughhh… Raihan…! Look what you’ve done! Just stay still for a bit while I clean this up. Now where did I put that first aid kit…”  
Leon was about to rummage through the table’s drawers again, but Raihan took his injured finger to inspect. A small bead of blood had oozed out from his fingertip which he then licked off and proceeded to suck on gently.  
“S-stop! You really don’t need to do that…”  
Raihan took his finger out of his mouth but he was still holding onto his hand. Leon was feeling uneasy about the way he was acting but he wasn’t going to be cruel and kick him out of his place. At this point he was more uncomfortable with the fact that the water had soaked into his underwear and he wanted to get out of his work clothes immediately.  
“Okay, just stay put and don’t touch the glass! I’ll clean it up later… I’m going to get changed.”  
He started unbuttoning his shirt while walking towards his room. Raihan got up and followed him but at least he left the glass alone. For the while he had hung out with Leon during breaks and after work, he couldn’t help but want to spend more time with him, but also after seeing him with Sonia, he had felt jealous and discouraged from inviting him to hang out more. Eventually he started streaming more again to forget about it all but it was being more of a chore rather than to help him tune out of his work-related problems and relax with his viewers. Leon had gone into his room, but on the opposite end was the bathroom and Raihan decided to wash his face first. After splashing cold water on his face to feel less drowsy, he looked into the mirror. Leon had his room door open and was taking off his pants.  
“Crap… where did I put my shorts?”  
Raihan quickly wiped his face and went to help his friend in need.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> [my 18+ twitter fanart acc](https://twitter.com/mkrcry)


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